1. Happy Monday… Week 2 Sustainable Ecosystems
First Five! Gather in small group and share the significant statements you selected from the article “New OIL”.
Share concerns, ideas… suggestions for a more sustainable world!
2. Brief PPT on Chapter 1 Introduction to Environmental Science with a review of the Scientific Method!
3. Then…Introduction to Ecocolumn Challenge
You will be challenged to build, monitor and maintain artificial closed system habitats. Your challenge is to plan a sustainable system!
Water=Power Ted Talk

2. Introduction Environment Ecology Environmental Science
External conditions that affect living organisms
Ecology
Study of relationships between living organisms and their environment
Environmental Science
how nature works.
how the environment effects us.
how we effect the environment.
how we can live more sustainably without degrading our life-support system.

3. Life without water! Bolivia, a world without water! Personal Stories
Read the New Oil!
Should water be privatized?

4. Unit 1 Powerpoint Chapters 1 & 2 What is Capital…
Unit 1 Powerpoint Chapters 1 & 2 What is Capital…. Solar Capital, Social Capital, Earth Capital?

5. Capital I think of capital as …Value…..
Social Capital… When you think about yourself… How good is you word?

6. Solar Capital and Earth Capital
Energy from the sun
Provides 99% of the energy used on earth
Earth Capital
Life-support and Economic Services
Environment
Planet’s air, water, soil, wildlife, minerals, natural purification, recycling, pest control,…

7. Carrying Capacity
Lets go fishing… Your pond could only support 40 fish…Explain
What would happen if you put too many fish?
The maximum number of organisms of a local, regional, or global environment can support over a specified period
Variables
Location
Time
Short term ~ seasonal changes
Long-term ~global changes in factors such as climate
Technology
K.. Carrying Capacity is NOT STATIC…
Explain…..

8. Sustainability Here is the Deal…
The ability of a specified system to survive and function over time for future generations.
$1,000,000
10% interest
Live on up to $100,000 per year
Examples: Sustainable earth, resource harvest, and society
Here is the Deal…
Can your way of life support your children’s, children’s children?????
That is sustainability!

9. We rely on natural resources
Natural resources = substances and energy sources needed for survival
Renewable natural resources = that can be replenished
Perpetually renewed: sunlight, wind, wave energy
Renew themselves over short periods: timber, water, soil
These can be destroyed
Nonrenewable natural resources = that are unavailable after depletion
Oil, coal, minerals

11. We rely on ecosystem services
Natural resources are “goods” produced by nature
Earth’s natural resources provide “services” to us
Ecosystem services = services that arise from the normal functioning of natural services
Purify air and water, cycle nutrients, regulate climate
Pollinate plants, receive and recycle wastes
We degrade ecosystem services by depleting resources, destroying habitat, generating pollution
Increased human affluence has intensified degradation

12. Biodiversity Genetic Diversity Species Diversity Ecological Diversity
Variety in a genetic makeup among individuals within a single species
Species Diversity
Variety among the species or distinct types of living organisms found in different habitats of the planet
Ecological Diversity
Variety of forests, deserts, grasslands, streams, lakes, oceans, wetlands, and other communities

13. Scientific Method-
Manipulative Experiments vs Natural Experiments.

14. We test hypotheses in different ways
Manipulative experiments yield the strongest evidence
Researchers control independent variables
Reveal causal relationships
Many things cannot be manipulated
Natural experiments show real-world complexity
Use existing conditions to test predictions—little control over variables
Results are not neat and clean
Answers are not black and white

16. Develop a hypothesis and Make predictions
Hypothesis = a statement that tries to explain the question
The hypothesis generates predictions = specific statements that can be directly tested
The test results either support or reject the hypothesis

17. Test the predictions Variable = a condition that can change
Independent variable = a variable that can be manipulated- That is what you are testing….
Dependent variable = a variable that depends on the independent variable- THE DATA

18. Test the predictions
Controlled experiment-Leave out the Independent variable.
Except the independent variable whose effect is being tested
Control = for comparison
Quantitative data = information that uses numbers
Qualitative data = information that does not use numbers

19. The scientific process continues beyond the scientific method
The scientific process guards against faulty research. Checks include:
Peer review
Publication in scientific journals
Competition for funding
So Here is the Challenge and you will be Challenged!

20. Materials & Methods Materials Methods
Models help us predict patterns in nature
Bottle Biology- Use water quality test kits to monitor your ecosystems!
Materials & Methods
Materials
Liter bottles, distilled water, sand, soil, rocks, fish, snails, aquatic plants, soil, scissors, packing tape, water quality testing equipment.
Methods
Design and assemble your eco-column to include terrestrial, aquatic and decompositional chambers. Discuss Energy flow, and nutrient cycles. Monitor each week for changes.

21. Environmental Degradation
Common Property Resources
Tragedy of the Commons
Resources owned by none, but available to all users free of charge
May convert potentially renewable resources into nonrenewable resources

22. Natural capital degradation
The exponential increasing flow of material resources through the world’s economic systems depletes, degrades and pollutes the environment.
Figure 1-11

23. Nonrenewable Resources
Recycling
Collecting and reprocessing a resource into new products
Reuse
Using a resource over and over in the same form

24. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS: CAUSES AND CONNECTIONS
The major causes of environmental problems are:
Population growth
Wasteful resource use
Poverty
Poor environmental accounting
Ecological ignorance

25. Poverty and Environmental Problems
1 of 3 children under 5, suffer from severe malnutrition.
Figure 1-12 and 1-13

26. Our Ecological Footprint
Humanity’s ecological footprint has exceeded earths ecological capacity.
Figure 1-7

27. Pollution
Any addition to air, water, soil, or food that threatens the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms
Solid, liquid, or gaseous by-products or wastes

28. Point Source Pollutants
From a single, identifiable sources
Smokestack of a power plant
Drainpipe of a meat-packing plant
Exhaust pipe of an automobile

29. Nonpoint Source Pollutants
Dispersed and often difficult to identify sources
Runoff of fertilizers and pesticides
Storm Drains (#1 source of oil spills in oceans)

30. Negativity of Pollutant
Chemical Nature
How active and harmful it is to living organisms
Concentration
Amount per unit volume or weight of air, water, soil or body weight
Persistence
Time it stays in the air, water, soil or body

31. Types of Pollutants
Factors that determine the severity of a pollutant’s effects: chemical nature, concentration, and persistence.
Pollutants are classified based on their persistence:
Degradable pollutants
Biodegradable pollutants
Slowly degradable pollutants
Nondegradable pollutants

32. Water Pollution Sediment Nutrient overload Toxic chemicals
Infectious agents
Oxygen depletion
Pesticides
Oil spills
Excess heat

33. Air Pollution Global climate change Stratospheric ozone depletion
Urban air pollution
Acid deposition
Outdoor pollutants
Indoor pollutants
Noise

34. Solution: Pollution cleanup
Output Pollution Cleanup
Involves cleaning up pollutants after they have been produced
Most expensive and time consuming

35. Solutions: Pollution Prevention
Input Pollution Control or Throughput Solution
Slows or eliminates the production of pollutants, often by switching to less harmful chemicals or processes
Four R’s
Reduce, reuse, refuse, recycle